Eve of a Hundred Midnights

by Bill Lascher

  * Figures for how many were killed during the “Rape of Nanking” remain highly politicized and disputed, but the reality is that tens of thousands were massacred.

  * Life credits this image to an outside picture agency, but Mel’s letter accompanying the negatives, as well as future letters, suggests that he took this picture. It’s unclear if the final published image was a separate one from the one Mel described, as some images were shot similarly by multiple photographers. Additionally, the National Archives and Records Administration credits an identical photo to Carl Mydans, but Mydans was not in Chungking when this attack took place.

  * The film was Gable’s Somewhere I’ll Find You. Produced by Annalee’s studio, MGM, the movie had a further tragic twist beyond its stinging subject matter. Somewhere’s production had been halted after Gable’s wife, the actress Carole Lombard, died in a January 16, 1942, plane crash.